282 



ZOOLOGY 



Fabre as a 

 teacher 



Fabre's 

 studies of 

 insects 



nights ; each wad-clad blade of grass scraped by the 

 Anthidium (bee)." (See Chapter 39, page 296.) 



Thus the necessity for remaining at home became an 

 advantage. It was this intensive and loving study of 

 his immediate environment which made it possible for 

 Fabre to write his great work, or series of works, the 

 Souvenirs entomologiques. 



3. At the age of nineteen Fabre became a teacher of 

 elementary subjects in the school at Carpentras. The 

 salary was small, and the school a dismal place. Fabre, 

 with his poetic and sensitive nature, was torn by op- 

 posite emotions. He taught with enthusiasm, always 

 wishing to convey some of his own rich feeling, and of 

 course met with a considerable measure of success. At 

 the same time he was distressed by the prevalent condi- 

 tions, the dirt and barbarism, the impossibility of at- 

 taining more than a fraction of what he aimed at. Thus 

 he was glad to leave the primary work when a chance 

 came to teach physics in the island of Corsica. It was 

 this stay in Corsica which finally confirmed him in his 

 devotion to natural history. Not only the greatly in- 

 creased opportunities for observation, but a fortunate 

 meeting with the naturalist Moquin-Tandon, gave this 

 direction to his thoughts. Moquin-Tandon, professor 

 at Toulouse, was a remarkable and versatile man who 

 has left a strong impression on French science. He 

 knew how to make zoology and botany interesting, and 

 to use graceful language in describing the most abstruse 

 details. It was a revelation to Fabre when this en- 

 thusiast showed him, in a plate of water, the anatomy 

 of a snail. 



4. After a time Fabre returned to the mainland of 

 France, to teach in the lycee of Avignon. Now began 

 a period of twenty years, devoted to pedagogy and 



